In the last few weeks, we've seen a large contingent of people going after certain solar companies for not honouring old panel warranties. To be honest, we saw this coming years and years ago. It's finally starting to happen. Panel warranties used to be an average 20 years for manufacturing (many are now 20 plus). Now that these panels are ageing, we are seeing them fail left, right, and centre. And one of the leading causes? Hotspots!
Now, Hotspots are the reason LG no longer makes solar panels. Unfortunately, if you skimp on the panel quality or, far worse, bring a good panel that wasn't made properly, you will face this issue. LG didn't make their cells, but they were left holding the baby as they made the panels.
Technically, you are covered by a warranty. That warranty lies with the company that sold you the panels, not the manufacturer. This is a death blow for anyone who has installed large volumes of solar or has been around for 10+ years. While the age of a company used to be a good sign, it's now a red flag due to the ageing solar systems out there and their liabilities.
Let's imagine you have to replace 1,000,000 panels. That means you have to uninstall and then reinstall the entire system! You can see why this will quickly clean the industry out soon and why we always say you cannot do solar on a large scale. There are just too many things that can go wrong, and they do!
As we speak, class actions are being prepared against solar companies, many of which we know very well. Unfortunately, they won't be able to wiggle out of this one. To be fair to them, it's not their fault; they're just the ones responsible for the fix-ups.
If a company as large as LG, which, it must be stressed, had a great product, can't make it work, then it doesn't look good for the majority of established installers. What this space... it's going to be an interesting future.
And hopefully, you can understand why we do what we do—we keep it small and simple. It's really the only way.
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